Daily Commentary – Monday, February 17, 2014 – Actor Ralph Waite Passes Away at Age 85

• “The Walton’s patriarch died at his home in Palm Desert, California. R.I.P.

Daily Commentary – Monday, February 17, 2014 Download

Snake Handling Kentucky Pentecostal Pastor Jamie Coots Who Starred in National Geographic’s Reality Show “Snake Salvation” Dies from … a Snake Bite

OK, YOU JUST CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP … I GUESS WE COULD HAVE SEEN THIS ONE COMING.

Jammie Coots, a Kentucky Pentecostal snake-handling pastor, who starred in a National Geographic reality show “Snake Salvation” has died of … hold it, hold it, hold it, that’s it you guessed it, a snake bite. Coots was a third generation snake handler who believed that a passage in the Bible suggests poisonous snakebites will not harm believers as long as they are anointed by God. I guess this last snake bite was not. WBIR reports that Middlesboro Police Chief Jeff Sharpe said Coots was found dead in his home at about 10 p.m. Saturday. A snake bit Coots while he was handling the animal in his Middlesboro, Kentucky church, Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name.

Define irony … Coots is quoted saying in the below video that he never sought medical attention because of snake bites as he said when he first started in church, “that if I ever went to a hospital or doctor over a snake bite, I would quit the church.”

VIDEO from National Geographic via Mediaite

A Kentucky pastor who starred in a reality show about snake-handling in church has died — of a snakebite.

Jamie Coots died Saturday evening after refusing to be treated, Middleborough police said.

On “Snake Salvation,” the ardent Pentecostal believer said that he believed that a passage in the Bible suggests poisonous snakebites will not harm believers as long as they are anointed by God. The practice is illegal in most states, but still goes on, primarily in the rural South.

Coots was a third-generation “serpent handler” and aspired to one day pass the practice and his church, Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name, on to his adult son, Little Cody.

The National Geographic show featured Coots and cast handling all kinds of poisonous snakes — copperheads, rattlers, cottonmouths. The channel’s website shows a picture of Coots, goateed, wearing a fedora. “Even after losing half of his finger to a snake bite and seeing others die from bites during services,” Coots “still believes he must take up serpents and follow the Holiness faith,” the website says.

Pastor dies after snake he was handling bit him.

Sharpe said Coots went home before emergency workers got to the church. Officials then went to his house but weren’t given consent to treat him or transport him to the hospital. About an hour later officials said they returned to the home, but Coots had passed away.

Another preacher at the church, Cody Winn, said he was right next to Coots when he got bit during the Saturday evening service.

“Jamie went across the floor. He had one of the rattlers in his hand, he came over and he was standing beside me. It was plain view, it just turned its head and bit him in the back of the hand before, within a second,” Winn said.

He said Coots dropped the snakes, but then picked them back up and continued on. Within minutes, he said Coots headed to the bathroom with his son and Andrew Hamblin, an East Tennessee preacher who also handles snakes.

“Andrew said he looked at him and said ‘sweet Jesus’ and it was over. He didn’t die right then, but he just went out and never woke back up,” Winn said.

Statement from National Geographic:

National Geographic said in a statement it was struck by Coots’ “devout religious convictions despite the health and legal peril he often faced.”

“Those risks were always worth it to him and his congregants as a means to demonstrate their unwavering faith,” the statement said. “We were honored to be allowed such unique access to pastor Jamie and his congregation during the course of our show, and give context to his method of worship.”

Actress Ellen Page of the Movie Says, “I am Gay” … Honestly, Who Cares? You’re a Hollywood Actress, Not Like You Came Out and Said You Were a Republican!

Just curious, what would get a Hollywood actor/actress more of a backlash … whether they came out and said they were Gay or a Conservative Republican?

26 year old Hollywood actress Ellen Page made the announcement that she was gay during a conference for LGBT teens ‘Time to Thrive’ Friday in Las Vegas at the ‘Human Rights Campaign’. She said she, “was tired of hiding and tired of lying by omission.”  How is this a major or bold announcement? Seriously, I am not being flip here. Personally, I could care less what sexual orientation she is. It makes no difference whether I will or will not watch her movies. I have always enjoyed her in such movies like X-Men: The Last Stand, Whip It,  Juno and Super. It might be one thing for individuals in some locals, but the notion that in this day and age some one who is in the movie business environment can’t come of of the closet is absurd. It is not like you are going to be ostracized, harassed or made fun of because you are gay. If there was ever an industry that is more openly accepting of gays, it would be Hollywood and the movie industry. Sorry, but it is not a bad thing to be gay. Hollywood might be tough on you to have the right look, have the right weight, have the right hair color, but they could care less if you are gay or not. In fact, it might be a plus.

Hollywood actress Ellen Page, known for her role in the movie “Juno,” announced she is gay, in a very public way.

Page broke the news during an emotional speech Friday in a crowded conference hall in Las Vegas, her publicist confirmed to CNN.

“I’m here today because I am gay. And because… maybe I can make a difference,” Page told a crowd at an event called Time to THRIVE, a conference to promote issues of the gay community.

The website for the Human Rights Campaign, which hosted the conference in Nevada, congratulated the star for her “brave decision to live openly and authentically.” My question is why does it have to be public knowledge what your sexual orientation is? Does it really matter? Why do we need to know if you like guys, girls or both?

It is not like Ellen Page came out and said … I am a Republican! Now imagine if  Hollywood actress Ellen Page had come out of the closet and said she was a Tea Party Conservative and said, she did not vote for Barack Obama and does not know how anyone could have done so. Imagine if she said that President Obama’s policies were hurting teen’s chances for future jobs and that the LGBT teens sitting in the audience will have an insurmountable $17.4 trillion and counting debt because of Obama? Now that would have been really coming out of the closet for an actor/actress that would have been a story and have caused her more of a mean and hateful reaction on Facebook and Twitter.

Just ask Stacey Dash and the backlash of hatred she received for announcing her support of a GOP president.

Daily Commentary – Tuesday, February 11, 2014 – Preview of Tonights Dana Pretzer Show

• With Dr. Dale Archer discussing addiction and Wendy Murphy talking about her open letter to Woody Allen

Legendary Child Star Shirley Temple Passes Away at age 85 … Rest in Peace

Arguably the most famous child star ever has passed away …

This hardly seems possible … legendary child actress Shirley Temple Black has died at the age of 85.  The child star known for her curly hair and dimples died of natural causes Monday night at her Woodside, California home surrounded by her family and caregivers. Shirley Temple Black lifted America’s spirits as a bright-eyed, dimpled child movie star during the Great Depression and later became a U.S. diplomat.

The bright-eyed, adorable little actress was a No. 1 box-office draw in the 1930s, helping to boost America’s spirits after the Great Depression and saving the Fox studio from bankruptcy.

Shirley Temple, the enchanting singing and dancing child star with the glowing corkscrew curls who saved a Hollywood studio and helped yank America from the throes of the Great Depression, died Monday night. She was 85.

CNN: Shirley Temple Black, the former child star who later became a U.S. ambassador, has died at 85, her publicist says.

Temple began acting at age 3 and starred in four massive box-office draws before she turned 10, commanding a then-unheard of $50,000 per movie.

Her first film of notice appeared in 1932, when she played the part of the Baby Burlesks in a series of short films called “War Babies.”

For about 18 years, she sang, tap danced and acted her way into the hearts of millions.

She retired from filmmaking at 22, after marrying Charles Black and changing her last name to Temple Black.

But she did not fade from the public eye. Far from it.

She embarked on a new career as a foreign diplomat: She served in the U.S. delegation to the United Nations from 1969 to 1974, was U.S. ambassador to Ghana from 1974 to 1976, and U.S. ambassador to Czechoslovakia from 1989 to 1992.

Shirley Temple – On The Good Ship Lollipop

FOX News: Former Hollywood child star Shirley Temple dies at 85.

Temple became a nationwide sensation. Mothers dressed their little girls like her, and a line of dolls was launched that are now highly sought-after collectables. Her immense popularity prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to say that “as long as our country has Shirley Temple, we will be all right.”

“When the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time during this Depression, it is a splendid thing that for just 15 cents, an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles,” Roosevelt said.

She followed up in the next few years with a string of hit films, most with sentimental themes and musical subplots. She often played an orphan, as in “Curly Top,” where she introduced the hit “Animal Crackers in My Soup,” and “Stowaway,” in which she was befriended by Robert Young, later of “Father Knows Best” fame.

She teamed with the great black dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson in two 1935 films with Civil War themes, “The Little Colonel” and “The Littlest Rebel.” Their tap dance up the steps in “The Little Colonel” (at a time when interracial teamings were unheard-of in Hollywood) became a landmark in the history of film dance.

Wiki: Political ambitions -

Following her venture into television, Temple became active in the Republican Party in California. In 1967, she ran unsuccessfully in a special election in California’s 11th congressional district to fill the seat left vacant by the death of eight-term Republican J. Arthur Younger from leukemia.[93][94] She ran as a conservative and lost to law school professor Pete McCloskey, a liberal Republican who was a staunch opponent of the Vietnam War.[95]

She was appointed Representative to the 24th United Nations General Assembly by President Richard M. Nixon (September – December 1969),[96][97] and was appointed United States Ambassador to Ghana (December 6, 1974 – July 13, 1976) by President Gerald R. Ford.[98] She was appointed first female Chief of Protocol of the United States (July 1, 1976 – January 21, 1977), and was in charge of arrangements for President Jimmy Carter’s inauguration and inaugural ball.[98][99] She served as the United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (August 23, 1989 – July 12, 1992), having been appointed by President George H. W. Bush.[33]